Medical generators are widely used in medical treatment systems. Their numerous functions include: supplying energy for treatment, communicating with measuring, monitoring, and/or treatment devices, controlling the activity of one or more peripheral treatment devices (such as pumps or suction devices), computing and analyzing input data, and displaying or otherwise communicating treatment information to a user. With such a wide range of uses, medical generators often communicate with multiple devices, each of whose operational parameters may depend on the activity of other devices.
The complexity of multiple inputs and interactions, which gives medical generators their versatility and utility, can also cause more opportunities for errors to arise. These errors can often be difficult for a user to diagnose because of the multiple possible causes of a single problem. For example, in a medical treatment system that monitors impedance while energy is delivered to a tissue through a probe, an excessively high impedance measurement could be caused by vaporization of the tissue, a malfunctioning impedance monitor, or a disconnection of the treatment device.
It is often necessary to identify the causes of errors and to fix the errors as quickly as possible to ensure safety, due to the delicate nature of some medical treatment procedures. Frequently, however, individuals operating a medical treatment system do not have a technical background or a detailed knowledge of the way the system works. If there is an error in the operation of the medical treatment system, these users may not understand how to solve the error and may not recognize whether an error is signaling a more fundamental problem. Compounding this complexity are differences in component function with different modes of operation, meaning that one error may have different causes at different times.
Currently, some medical generators for use in medical treatment systems use a coded display requiring a user to look up an error code in documentation which may raise follow-up questions to help troubleshoot the problem further. This approach can be time consuming and inconvenient during a medical procedure. Some medical generators use an on-screen display that informs the operator of an error and may suggest possible courses of action. However, many errors, such as high impedance, may have a variety of possible causes and suggested courses of action for resolution. In these cases, it can be time consuming to determine which course of action will resolve the error. If multiple errors are detected additional time and effort will be required to determine whether the errors are jointly or independently caused, and which course(s) of action will optimally and efficiently resolve all errors.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,788,965, issued Sep. 7, 2004 to Ruchti et al, discloses a system for detecting errors and determining failure modes related to a non-invasive blood glucose monitor. Ruchti et al. disclose an error detection system that employs a hierarchical series of levels to determine whether or not a given glucose measurement is invalid. Each level utilizes different criteria (e.g. rudimentary specifications, patient history, etc.) for determining the validity of the measurement. Ruchti et al. do not describe a medical treatment apparatus with various functions, modes of operation or multiple inputs/outputs and do not describe an error logic system that may solve the difficulties associated with such an apparatus as described above.
A solution which addresses one or more of these shortcomings is desired.